RP for rude_not_ginger The morning after...

[quitehomoerotic]

Follows on from this

When Jack woke it took him a while to realise where he was, a while to catch up with the night before.

But it soon came rushing back.

The sleep, what little he'd had, had still been more than he'd had in weeks. Though it still wasn't enough to relieve the ache he felt inside. An ache that only seemed to grow when he thought about the night before.

He felt like a fool. A fool for attempting to push aside pain. Guilty for it too. Guilty for trying. Guilty too for making a fool out of himself in front of the one person who might understand.

One thing he knew though, almost immediately; he should leave. The TARDIS wasn't the place for him. Not any more. It was once, when he was a man who could die, a man who could sleep a dreamless sleep. But he wasn't that man now. And besides, the Doctor had hardly asked him to stay, had he? If he left it would remove the need for the inevitable conversation that would only leave them both feeling awkward. And besides, Jack didn't want to have to hear the Doctor asking him to leave.

So he washed and dressed (and he had to admit he was thankful for the shower), and he made his way back to the console room. His feet padding as quietly as they could along the endless corridors.

He took one last look around the room, touching a light hand against the walls as he took his coat and put it back on. He smiled at it, at the memories this place and the man who owns it hold.

And he walked to the doors to leave.

Comments

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

"Sounds like a plan. The TARDIS's scanners should find what we need," the Doctor said. Something felt very wrong here. Something felt...out of place, missing. It was the sound of the wind, or the---wait. That vworp vworp sound was not the wind!

Without warning, the Doctor took off like a dart, running full pelt to where he last remembered the TARDIS. He felt panic shoot through his veins and only most of it was his own. The TARDIS was afraid. The TARDIS was at the edge of the clearing and slowly disappearing.

"No!"

[quitehomoerotic.livejournal.com]

Jack nodded and walked along side the Doctor at a strolling pace, his hands shoved into his trouser pockets. But as the Doctor tensed it seemed like the air around them did too. The other man was away and gone before Jack barely had time to catch up with himself. But like a reflex he was on his toes and following him, running at speed behind him.

As they got closer he too heard the noise; that oh so familiar sound that never failed to send a tingle down his spine.

But not now, not this time. Because hearing it now was bad, hearing it now meant the TARDIS was leaving, and leaving without them. Leaving without the Doctor.

Racing ahead Jack stumbled out into the clearing and looked forward at where the blue box was disappearing in front of them. He took a moment to catch his breath and glanced forward and to the side at the Doctor. With a firm grip he reached out a hand and grabbed hold of his shoulder.

"It's okay." He reassured with a squeeze of his shoulder. He wasn't sure it was, but he knew it had to be. "It'll be okay, Doctor. You'll get her back." If he could do anything, he'd make sure he'd get her back.

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

The Doctor stood there, shocked. The TARDIS. He felt her fear, and felt her vanish. It wasn't the same as it was when the Master left, when she was all confusion and begging him to stop her from leaving. Anything, just don't let the Master take her. This was different. This was a quiet plea. A plea to stay, please.

It still hurt, like a shot right to the hearts.

The shock wore off within a few seconds and he was suddenly shouting at the air.

"Oh, of course! No reason to attack the people here, that was just a convenient distraction! Set up something for us to follow while whoever wanted off of quiet and peaceful Orion just made a run for it in our ship! Oh, that's clever!" The last words were said with a decided irritation.

[quitehomoerotic.livejournal.com]

Jack could only imagine what it must feel like for the Doctor. The TARDIS wasn't just his ship, it was part of him, connected to him. And it was all he had.

It sparked in Jack something he hadn't felt for quite some time. An urge to solve things. An urge to protect someone he cares for, and in turn to let them know that things will be okay.

He kept his hand against the Doctor's shoulder and used it to turn him so that the two men were facing. His other hand lifted and he gripped his other shoulder, demanding his full attention.

"Yeah. Yeah very clever. But no one knows how to fly that thing like you, right. And nobody is going to get very far. All just part of the adventure, okay. Just part of the adventure. And come on, two clever guys like us? It'll be a cinch!" Jack grinned wide, with a confidence that even if wasn't real, was convincing. He phrased each word as a statement, no questions, just certainty.

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

"They could do worse than fly her well," the Doctor said, his voice suddenly quiet and distant. "Could crash her. Or worse. The TARDIS has enormous power, Jack. Untapped multicosmos of power. Someone who doesn't know how to handle her behind the wheel..."

He felt his stomach turn at the thought. Not his TARDIS. Not his ship, his constant friend. He couldn't lose her. Not like this, not so stupidly.

"There has to be a-a-a transport vehicle. Tourist ship, leaving the sector. We could hitch a lift on that."

[quitehomoerotic.livejournal.com]

"Doctor!" Jack urged as he gripped the other man by the upper arms. His voice was firm with authority yet somehow soft, supportive.

"We'll get her back," he spoke with a faint smile. The sort of smile that said he was so utterly certain of it, so certain it was almost a game of hide and seek. It wasn't, of course, and Jack was by no means certain of anything, but it was a behaviour well practised over the years; appear confident and absorb the pain and worry of your team. The Doctor, of course, wasn't Jack's team. But he could be, if he needed him, here and now, he'd have to be.

He tapped the Doctor on the arm companionably before withdrawing his hands. "Then we'll find it," he nodded as he flicked open the leather strap on his vortex manipulator.

"You know you might have turned off my special features but this thing still has its uses." He grinned to himself as he pushed away on buttons in a seemingly random sequence. "---And... a-ha gotcha. Medical transporter, about three thousand killometers from the surface."

His grin grew wider (perhaps even a little smug) and he turned his attention back to the Doctor. "Looks like it's a good job you've got me around."

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

"Brilliant!" the Doctor said. He leaned over Jack's arm, looking at the little dials with an impressed grin. "Excellent job, captain."

He felt like part of himself was missing, scooted off in the universe, gone. He knew he could chase after her alone if he had to, but right now? Right now he was just very grateful that he didn't have to.

He'd eventually figure out how to thank Jack. It would take time, but he would.

He put his hand on the wriststrap and pulled out his sonic.

"Ready?"

[quitehomoerotic.livejournal.com]

Even now Jack couldn't help but feel pleased when the Doctor seemed impressed with something he did. He was like a child trying to impress his favourite teacher, or a love sick teenager desperate to be noticed. He supposed, deep down, he really was a little of both.

As the Doctor pulled out his sonic, Jack could barely hide his glee at the sight of it. He loved his wrist strap, he really did, it was a part of him. After all, he'd had it so long, and despite a few hitches, it had served him well. He couldn't help but be pleased at the thought of it regaining full functionality (even if under the steady control of the Doctor).

In the rush he'd almost managed to forget that he felt empty inside, it was as though the void was -at least for now- full again. Remarkable really.

"Thought you'd never ask," he grinned as the Doctor's fingers settled over the leather strap, and he waited for the him to work his magic.

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

"Don't let this go to your head now," he warned, teasingly.

The Doctor grinned brightly for a moment. This was when they were at their finest, he and Jack. On the move, on the run. Out on some adventure or another. They didn't do well with quiet contemplation. And while Orion was lovely for a cup of tea and maybe a few good books, it was not somewhere he wanted to stay for too long. It was far too quiet.

People like the Doctor and Jack, they needed to run.

"Off we go."

With a few flips of the sonic, the space-hopper blasted the Doctor and Jack into the cargo bay of the passing freighter. The effect was very like having a large hook deposited through one's bellybutton, tied around their wrists and then rammed directly through their skull.

The Doctor didn't like space hoppers much.

[quitehomoerotic.livejournal.com]

"Oh as if I would," Jack responded with a glint in his eye that said quite the opposite. A glint that had been missing for quite a while.

In barely a blink Jack felt that feeling, like his insides were being pulled out and turned around and rearranged all over again. He loved that feeling.

He cricked his neck and shrugged out his shoulders before clapping his hands together and exclaiming loudly, "Woo, now that's what I call a rush!"

He looked beside him for the other man and from the expression on his face he guessed the Doctor didn't enjoy the experience as much as he had. "You okay there, Doctor?" He laughed a little as he advanced forward to a panel on the wall, attempting to make sense of the ship they were on.

"Looks like a mark seven med transporter. Should be easy enough to... well... commandeer."

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

The Doctor leaned down, hands to his knees, trying to keep the world from spinning and his lunch in his stomach. He hated space travel without a capsule. It was really an inhuman way to fly. And, really, even a time ring was better than that thing.

But! It did get them where they needed to go.

"No, no," he said, cricking his own neck and straightening up. "There'll be about fifty people on this transport. We'll need to modify one of the escape pods. We should be able to get to one of those without being noticed, then we can zip off to Galario 9, get a proper time transport."

He paused, looking down at Jack's wristband. "Not that it's not a lovely transport, I just think we'll need something a little more reliable."

[quitehomoerotic.livejournal.com]

"Oh come on!" Jack said as he was was already prising off a panel on the wall to access the controls underneath. "Where's you're sense of fun?"

A screen popped up and a schematic of the ship displayed itself in front of Jack. "Ha! Got it!" He grinned wide and turned his head back to the Doctor with a proud expression.

"You know I should be offended by that," he nodded, not offended in the slightest. "Come on, take a look. You sure you want to take the easy way out?" He hoped that putting it that way, might persuade him otherwise.

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

The Doctor slipped on his glasses and leaned towards the display. "I never take the easy way out," he said. "I just think it would be a little less destructive if we---hello..."

He pressed a few keys and the back display of the ship zoomed in. "That's a positrionic drive subsectation core. With a solar-store time refractal added in. Those are highly illegal and with good reason. Look at the rutgen radiation it's leaking all over the back section of the ship."

The Doctor zoomed the image out and began counting the number of escape pods. A good number were already logged out, the rest looked inactive.

[quitehomoerotic.livejournal.com]

"Rutgen radiation?" Jack repeated with an incredulous tone. "God just a cup full of that stuff is enough to blow a hole the size of Milton Keynes. I mean, not that anyone really needs Milton Keynes, but that's hardly the point."

He pulled aside another panel to reveal a similar keyboard, pressing a button or two. "A leak like that I'm surprised the ship's still in one piece. If anyone is still alive on it it'd be a miracle."

As he pressed away on keys in some seemingly random panel a frown etched into his face. "Doctor..." he started, glancing over, "a lot of it seems corrupted, but, if this is right, I'm reading five life signs in a starboard access corridor."

His gaze settled up from the screen and back to the other man; a soldier waiting for instruction.

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

"Milton Keynes? That's a bit undramatic, isn't it?" the Doctor chided. "Still, you're very right. Shouldn't affect me, Gallifreyan biology circumvents the radiation, but for those survivors, assuming they're humanoid..."

Which was a big assumption. For all the Doctor knew, they could be pirates. And, really, if he were a betting man (which he was, but only on occasion) he'd bet on some sort of an attack. Maybe even piracy.

But they could be survivors. That meant there was really no choice. He nodded to Jack, then bolted towards one of the main access doors.

Opening door 55.

[quitehomoerotic.livejournal.com]

"Undramatic, maybe. But on a ship like this? Not so good." He nodded at the Doctor's confirmation that he'd be unharmed and went on, "And I'd like to see it even try and harm me."

He barely had to wait a moment and the Doctor was gone, off, dashing away. Jack followed as he always would.

"Why do the doors always have that same voice. Seriously, any craft, any planet, always the same voice!" He went on, rather inappropriately. His wrist strap still open to monitor the life signs.

"Take the third access corridor on the left, then the stai-- oh," he paused, frowned, "Doctor I'm picking up a secondary energy signature. Looks like it originates from outside the ship."

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

"I wouldn't, Jack," the Doctor said, not looking behind himself (Jack would follow, he trusted that). "It might not kill you, but it'll hurt a lot." And, for all the Doctor knew, it might kill him. There was no real knowing where the Fact ended and the universe took over.

Opening door 54. "They're all in kits, these ships," he said. "Little blocks that stick together so they're easier. Generally, the ones who build them have no creativity, no panache. So they pick the default voice." As he spoke, he gave a gentle rap to the doorway panel. Opening Exterior Sun Visor.

There was no sun outside, but there was light, bouncing off of the ship and onto debris, corpses. But no lifeform. Not that the Doctor could see, anyway. Just a dark emptiness.

"Jack," the Doctor said, his voice low and concerned. "What region of space are we in again?"

[quitehomoerotic.livejournal.com]

"Doctor," Jack said, dryly, "Do I really need to list the ways I've died? Not forgetting that time I blew up. I think I can handle a bit of pain." He did used to wonder if anything could finally kill him. It was perhaps that which had been the last straw. Blowing up and coming back from it. Blowing up and remembering it. There couldn't really be a lot worse, could there?

Jack's demeanour stiffened a little as the visor rose and he looked at the floating bodies outside. It was a terrible way to go.

At the question his eyes tilted in the Doctor's direction before down at his wrist strap. "When we boarded the craft it was, give or take, about three thousand kilometres due east of the surface of the Eye of Orion. Average speed I registered back in the other room I'd say were about... ooh, another, three point two, three point three thousand further in the same direction?" He frowned a little and shook his wrist strap as though that would fix a problem.

"Weird though, the sensors aren't picking up a location like they should be. In fact... they're not picking up anything."

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

"Three thousand kilometres to six thousand kilometers east of Orion would put us right along the belt," the Doctor said. He turned to look at Jack. "Which would mean we would be looking at the belt of Orion right now, along with three more planets in that system."

But outside the window was nothing, just that stretch of blackness.

He straightened and sniffed, for all the world appearing to be completely relaxed.

"How large was that energy signature, Jack?"

[quitehomoerotic.livejournal.com]

Jack felt his heart rate increasing as the harsh facts dawned on him. Something was wrong, something was very very wrong. He didn't show it either, he was far too well practised than to wear his heart on his sleeve. No change but a deeper breath.

He reached down to his wrist strap again to recall the readings from before. He didn't like what he saw. "At the time of reading? It had a circumference of twenty thousand four hundred and ninety eight kilometres. Doctor... that's about half the size of Earth."

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

"Yep," the Doctor agreed with a nod. "Half the size of Earth but---if my guess is right---about as hungry as all of the people on it combined."

The darkness rippled, but any sound made was lost in the vacuum of space. The Doctor swallowed, but his voice went a little squeaky with worry as he spoke again.

"Space walls, they're called, but they're living entities out in the vastness of space, usually around uninhabited systems. They basically sit like fly paper on a path and wait for ships to fly on through." He bit his lip. "They even admit their own gravitational pull, that's probably what's propelling the ship after all that damage. The black color is a digestive sludge. Provides a perfect camouflage. Well, almost perfect. Would be perfect if we weren't in such a starry sector."

[quitehomoerotic.livejournal.com]

"So what?" The pitch of Jack's voice hitched up a little, a bed of urgency underneath. "They just sit there like great big moving black holes? You're telling me that whatever this is... this space wall, it's consumed the belt?"

The thoughts of the TARDIS and whatever may have taken it bore into Jack's mind, but he wouldn't let that settle, wouldn't let the worry cement itself.

"Okay," he breathed out, evaluating the new information. "Now we know what it is... How do we stop it?"

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

"And everything that's gone through its path, yep," the Doctor said. He struggled, holding back a sudden wave of despair. "But the TARDIS wouldn't have gone through that," he added, more for his own benefit. "It would've taken the Vortex, which circumvents the path of the Wall."

Jack's other question was more difficult. "Stopping a Space Wall isn't like knocking down a garden brick pile. It's a planet-sized killing machine that will stick and consume you with the slightest touch. But..."

He went through a few calculations in his mind, then turned to make a run for it. "We've got to get the survivors off of this ship!"

[quitehomoerotic.livejournal.com]

Jack opened his mouth to speak, perhaps to question further or to clarify something already said. But then the Doctor was gone and he was following.

"How exactly," he asked as he started his run a step or two behind him, "do you propose to do that? The ship is leaking radiation, remember? I could take them back down to the planet's surface, but this thing can't take more than three people at a time, and-" he pauses, still running, "You know what? I'm just going to shut up and let you solve things."

[rude-not-ginger.livejournal.com]

"I can relay link the transporter to one of the damaged pods," the Doctor said. "Should be large enough for six. It'll probably burn out your manipulator, but I'll get you a new one for your birthday, I promise. One quick trip, get everyone to safety."

Door 48 non-responsive.

"Non-responsive? What's that supposed to mean?" He waved the sonic over the box, but the door repeated itself. "Any other way down to them?"